


High Risk Occupation

by esama



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe, Home Improvement, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-05 22:25:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11022825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esama/pseuds/esama
Summary: Cloud and Tifa apply for a job at the ShinRa Mansion.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Unbetaed.  
> Timeline is fudged up and Cloud and Tifa are around 18-19 years old in this.

There are a few universal facts about Nibelheim all of its children have to contend with.

One, there is nothing to do. There is no internet in Nibelheim, phones don't work, there is no play grounds, no interesting buildings to explore, and everything outside the town's flimsy borders is out to get you. So you stay cooped indoors, or loiter about the town square and, ultimately, you are just very bored. Or you find alternative means of amusing yourself, usually at the expense of other people - method of self entertainment which Cloud is intimately familiar with.

Two, there is nothing to do after childhood. There are basically no jobs in Nibelheim, at all. The few major ones are all called for. Tifa's dad runs the things, the Stell family runs the Inn and the general store, Cloud's mom does all the repair work around the town... With utilities all automated and no construction happening, ever, that leaves basically garbage and the occasional mail which comes maybe once a month. So, Boring childhood tends to lead to boring adulthood.

In short, living in Nibelheim is a grey dreary drudgery of boredom.

So, when someone pinned an ad on the notice board on the inn, looking for employees at ShinRa Mansion... people jump at it. Especially kids who, like Cloud, are desperate for even a bit of their own money, not even much of it but just enough for a ticket out of their miserable backwater ditch of a town.

....or they did, anyway, until their parents beat all notions of going for any jobs at the ShinRa Mansion out of their heads.

"Last time people went to work at ShinRa Mansion, they all died," Skye Strife tells Cloud, frankly.  "Lena got a weird disease and died in two months, Ralle went to work one day and the next day we buried him, and no one told us how he died. They say that Justus - he became the cook at the mansion - got out and went with the ShinRa people when they left, since we never got a body to bury... but I suppose his body is still in the mansion basement or something. The Mayor visited the place once, you know - apparently there were a lot of bodies."

ShinRa Mansion has more ghost stories circling around it than any other building Cloud has ever heard - and from what he knows, Gold Saucer has an actual official professional haunted house for an attraction, with real ghosts.

All their lives the youth of Nibelheim had been told to stay away from the mansion. In ShinRa Mansion their chopped up good Nibelheim folk into bits and fed them into monsters, in ShinRa mansion terrible experiments were performed on innocent people for no reason, in ShinRa mansion spirits wailed and demons lurked about and everything rotted in dim glow of acidic mako.

Cloud had both believed all the stories - and none of them, same as everyone. Like every in town, he'd been dared to go inside - and like kid in town, he had failed. The doors were locked, the windows barred, the place was sealed up tight - and covered in security cameras, which was even worse than potential monsters and ghosts and mutated corpses.

"ShinRa is still watching," they'd say in the Inn tavern. "We drove them out of town, and now they're waiting for excuse to come back. They're looking to see someone to break in so that they can swoop in and _clean Nibelheim up_."

Stories of ShinRa cover ups and ShinRa black ops being far more plentiful in Nibelheim than ghost stories about the mansion, it wasn't that big of a stretch.

The only good thing about the ShinRa mansion that anyone could agree on was the fact that ShinRa had left, and the mansion was empty. It had been empty for almost as long as Cloud had been alive - he'd missed seeing ShinRa folk by few years, had still been an infant and stuck in a crib when the last chopper had flown off.

"And good riddance," Skye said dismissively. "Nothing but trouble. The scientists and soldiers would crowd the tavern and scare everyone with ridiculous stories. And there'd be weird noises at the mansion at all hours, and all the weird shipments in and out and all the mako - you could smell it all the way to town square sometime, the mako stench..."

So, everyone had always been very relieved that the mansion was empty - and in turn were very surprised and very suspicious, when the mansion started looking for staff.

* * *

 

"So, what do you think?" Tifa asks as they pass a copy of the Help Wanted Ad between them.

"Everyone says it's bad news," Cloud answers, poking at the thing. It's a print out that had been faxed to old man Stell and who'd then pinned it onto the notice board. He has a feeling it's not for any actual sense of civic duty or anything like that, though.

The ad has become bit of a sensation. For few days now people have been flocking in to see it, to pass it around and talk about it and share ghost stories about the mansion - all happening, of course, at the tavern where you had to buy something in order to stay for any extended period of time. It's a testament to how goddamn boring Nibelheim really was how well it works - even now, the tavern is almost full.

And, Cloud thinks wryly, even knowing how much business old man Stell was making off the thing, Cloud and Tifa too had been drawn in.

"Yeah, sure, but what do you think?" Tifa asks, poking at her lop sided sundae, which Cloud knows tastes mostly like freezer burn.

Cloud shrugs and looks at the ad. It's not that special, really.

> **HELP WANTED**
> 
> **Wanted for immediate full time employment: dependable hard working individuals with basic cleaning and maintenance skills. Additional knowledge about cooking, organisation and grounds management a plus. Work will include upkeep of a large household and chores to maintain general level of cleanliness. Work hours and pay negotiable.**
> 
> **For application, please refer to Mt. Nibel Road N0. 34, 55372, Nibelheim on 13th of November.**

And nothing else. Cloud doesn't know much about ads and overall this one doesn't seem in any way worrisome. If the address was for any other building than the ShinRa Mansion, anyone would've jumped at the chance.

"Do you think anyone will go for it?" Tifa asks, with a sort of half smile that's more of a test than actual amusement. She already knows what she thinks, and wants to see how badly he disagrees.

"Yeah," Cloud says and shrugs. "They will. I mean, yeah, it's ShinRa. But it's money. Even if they don't name the actual wages here or anything... it looks like they actually mean to pay."

Which no one in Nibelheim does. Cloud has done work for the in, for his mother's garage, he's worked at the school, he's done maintenance on half a dozen things around the town - and at most, he gets a sandwich for it. In Nibelheim, money sometimes seems like a story someone just made up, considering how rarely it's actually seen around the town.

"Yeah, but..." Tifa leans in, leaning her chin on her knuckles. "It's ShinRa. Worse yet, it's ShinRa Mansion. Who'd ever want to work for ShinRa?"

Cloud shrugs again. Everyone, from what he's seen. They say they don't - but fact to the matter was, ShinRa paid their employees. And as it was, the fact that it was ShinRa mansion might just make that much more tempting.

None of their generation had ever set a foot inside the mansion, after all. It was opportunity of a lifetime.

"Cloud," Tifa says, watching him, eyes narrowed. "You're not going, right?"

"Hm," Cloud says and eyes the ad wryly. "They killed people in that place, you know."

She watches him for a moment, eyes narrowed. "Good," she says firmly and turns to her disgusting freezer burn of a sundae. "That ad is just bad news, everyone says so. No one should take it up."

"Mm-hmm," Cloud agrees, still eyeing the ad.

* * *

 

13th of November is a Friday, fittingly enough, and it is a very basic Nibelheimian November day. It's cold, miserable and windy, with a sort of misty rain in the wind that seemed to freeze on impact. All in all, a terrible time to be out and about.

"Terrible weather," Cloud comments.

"Ghastly," Tifa agrees, as they not quite glare at each other, in a small crowd of hopefuls loitering about in the front yard of ShinRa Mansion.

"I thought it was a bad idea and no one should come here," Cloud comments.

"I thought they killed people here," Tifa answers.

The other hopefuls in the run down, over grown yard are muttering among each other, shivering and tucking their hands under their armpits for warmth as they, like Cloud and Tifa, eyeball their rivals for the one rare job opportunity that had ever appeared in their lifetime.

There's Johnny, who the previous night swore up and down that he'd never do something as stupid as going to the ShinRa Mansion, what are you, an idiot. Zira who had always turned her nose up at anything to do with ShinRa is also there, is standing not far from him, glaring from under the brim of her woollen hat. There's Kathy and Nava, best friends who always skipped school and swore they'd never fight, now giving each other the stink eye. Lou, the baby of their class who had never dared to do anything with parental approval, is there too, looking more like an adult than any of them with determined look on his face.

Cloud's whole graduating class is there, and they all hate each other.

"Your dad is ever going to approve," Cloud comments to Tifa. "Even if you get a job here, he'll drag you away the first chance he gets."

"Dad's a coward when it comes to ShinRa, he'd never dare," she says confidently.

Cloud narrows his eyes. "What do you need a job for anyway? Your family's loaded, you don't need money."

"It's my dad and he's not loaded," Tifa says and shoves her hands into the pockets of her parka, looking bitter. "He's just the mayor, that doesn't make him rich. It's not like people pay him, after all. I mean, who would, here? He doesn't even do anything - he's just someone to point at when things go wrong."

Cloud thinks about the nice house the Lockharts live in, the nice new clothes Tifa always has, how she never wears anything second hand. She's always on top of fashion, as far as fashion in Nibelheim goes anyway.

Cloud looks at her parka which is new and at her boots which are spotless, and arches an eyebrow.

She flushes and glares at him. "Shut up. I want money to get out of this stupid town, ok? And dad will never give it to me. It's not like you're any different."

"Well, I guess it doesn't even matter," cloud says and turns to the ShinRa Mansion, looming over them like some sort of angular gargoyle. "There's no one here."

Tifa makes a face and looks up. "Yeah."

No one had come to the mansion. No one new had arrived in Nibelheim, period, since the ad had been posted. It had been the same it had been for months and for years, really - dreary dull and utterly boring.

"You think the whole thing was a joke?" Tifa asks, rocking a bit on the balls of her feet, trying to stay warm.

"I'd say old man Stell made the whole thing up to get more customers... but he's too dumb for that," Cloud says. "I figure it might've been something - but got cancelled, or they got their employees from some other town and are bringing them in. Something like that."

"Yeah," Tifa says in disappointment and peers up at the mansion. "I guess it's just a good thing. I mean... ShinRa Mansion."

"Yeah," Cloud agrees. He hadn't exactly been looking forward to it either. Well he had... but then he hadn't. It was the ShinRa Mansion, after all. Nothing good had ever came out of the place."

"Should we head back?" Tifa asks. "It's cold out."

"Hmm," Cloud answers and folds his arms. "You first."

She glares at him and doesn't answer.

The minutes drag on, cold and miserable. The wind picks up and the misty rain keeps on coming, dribbling down thinly and covering them all in layer of chilly condensation. The sky is grey and the grounds around the mansion are dead and gloomy and slowly Cloud's toes start freezing in his shoes.

Really should've put on winter boots, he thinks, tucking the hood of his coat up against the wind.

An hour later, Johnny gives up on waiting. "This is stupid," he mutters bitterly. "It's all just a stupid joke." Kicking a pebble, he turns around. "If I find who posted that damn ad, I'm gonna kick their ass."

The rest of the look after him as he slouches away - always the biggest talker and the first forfeit.

"Good riddance," Tifa says.

"Good riddance," Cloud agrees.

Kathy and Nava are the next to give up - and they sort of peer pressure each other into it. "This is so dumb," they mutter to each other, obviously trying to psych the other into leaving. "We're just wasting our time here, freezing our asses off. No one's coming. Come on, let's go back, get inside. This is so dumb."

Cloud grits his teeth against the allure of giving up and heading home as they keep muttering to each other, until finally they give up, together. "Come on, let's leave these losers to waste their time," they say, as they link their arms together.

Tifa snorts into her scarf as Kathy and Nava stick their noses up, as if they too hadn't just seriously been hoping the same as the rest of them. They head off, muttering to each other, and then it's just Cloud, Tifa, Zira and Lou.

Zira waits for almost another hour before sighing. "Fuck this," she mutters and heads off without another word, looking annoyed and dejected. Tifa and Cloud look after her, and so does Lou who, after checking the sky and giving another look at the dark and silent mansion, simply turns and follows her away.

"Well," Cloud says, half chewing on the collar of his jacket to keep it up, to keep wind from getting at his neck. "Just us two then."

"Mm," Tifa answers, looking at him. She looks stubborn. "You can give up any time, Cloudy boy."

"After you," Cloud says flatly.

Sad thing is, they've been trying to out stubborn each other since they were five, and the only time they hadn't came into a adult-enforced draw was when Tifa had almost died falling off a bridge, and Cloud had gotten hypothermia and almost died of the ensuing pneumonia - and to this day, they are still two minds about who won that one.

Eyeing Tifa wryly, Cloud settles in for the long haul.

* * *

 

Four hours later, they're still waiting, and it's getting dark. Cloud has long since lost the feeling of his toes and his nose, which is leaking non-stop. Tifa has gone a little red around the nose too, and has tucked up all her collars and hoods and is almost drowning in them.

"Should've brought a thermos," Cloud mutters.

"Yeah," Tifa says and yawns, shuddering as she does. She's walking in circles idly to keep warm -  Cloud just walks on place, not feeling any particular need to add into the wind by actually moving.

"Five more hours until midnight," Tifa says.

Cloud thinks about it and then nods. That would be their end goal, then - if either one gave up before, they lost. And midnight would be acceptable draw - once it turned over to the 14th, there'd be no point in staying.

The prospect of standing around for another five hours is unbearable though.

"Let's break in," Cloud says.

"What?" Tifa asks, turning to him.

"Into the mansion," Cloud clarifies. "The ad said to go to the mansion. We're at the mansion, but we're not inside. So let's go inside."

She eyes him like he's an insane idiot - not an unusual look, really. Then she considers the mansion for a moment. Stubborn or not, she's not an idiot.  "Yeah. Okay," she agrees. "Those boards look like we might be able to pry them open if we get a stick or something."

So, that's what they do. Cloud finds a rusty shovel sitting near a ramshackle garden shed and soon they're using it to commit breaking an entering, prying open the boards nailed over one of the lowest windows of the mansion, until they get at the actual window itself. Surprisingly, the window is still intact.

It's also locked.

"Give it here," Tifa says, taking the rusty shovel. While Cloud watches, she rams it against the window bottom and tilts it slightly just so. It looks almost like she's trying to bend the window to the side - and then, suddenly, there is a sound of something snapping from the inside.

Next thing, Tifa is pulling the window open, as if it was never locked.

"What?" Cloud says flatly, because that kind of looked like magic to him.

"Our house was built the same time as ShinRa mansion - they got the same sort of windows," Tifa says and shrugs. "And you have no idea how many times I've broken in and out of my own house."

"You actual burglar," Cloud says, impressed.

Then they make their way inside, Tifa with all the grace of a martial artist, Cloud kicking and writhing and falling almost flat to his face once he actually manages to worm his way inside.

Inside, it's cold. And dark. And damp.

And there's also someone there, waiting for them.

At first Cloud thinks it's a ghost. It looks like one, and even though Cloud is tired and cold and annoyed, he's been thinking nothing but the Ghost Stories of ShinRa Mansion all week, so his mind makes the connection entirely too easily. It looks like a ghost, and for a moment Cloud just kind of wants to crawl back out through the open window and call it quits.

Then his mind catches up with himself. The guy is dressed all in black, and in the darkness it kind of looks like it's just his head and hands floating in the shadows, sure, but of course it isn't. It's just a man. A man with long dark hair, sitting on an old armchair, one of those new PHS things glowing in his hand.

The man checks his watch and hums. "Six hours and eighteen minutes," he says. "Impressive and disappointing."

"What," Cloud more states than asks, as his mind slowly starts working normally again.

The man looks at them and then puts his PHS away. He stands up fluidly and looks a bit like ghost in the darkness. "Six hours and eighteen minutes," he says. "That's how long you waited, in the cold, without giving up. Impressive. But at the same time it took you six hours and eighteen minutes to think about getting indoors. Disappointing."

"What?" Tifa asks, flatly. "Wait, who are you? What are you doing here - what is this?"

"This is your job interview, obviously," the man says explains, looking them over. "And you're the only ones left, hm?"

"Uh," Cloud says.

"The door was locked," Tifa points out, pointing at it. "It's still locked. And it looked like there was no one here. How were we supposed to know we were supposed to come inside?"

The dark haired man arches one eyebrow at them. "How did you?"

"What?"

"How did you know to come inside?"

Cloud frowns at the man and glances at Tifa. She makes a face and Cloud turns back to the black haired guy. "This is the job interview?" he clarifies. "And it includes making us wait outside, and then making us break into the mansion?"

The man doesn't answer, just watches them curiously, one leg crossed over another, looking not even amused by them - just expectant.

"What kind of job is this for?" Cloud asks incredulously. "The ad said maintenance and stuff - why make us wait and break in, how does that make sense?"

"Yeah, what the hell?" Tifa asks, suspicious frown on her face.

"That's left to be seen, isn't it?" the man says and leans back a little. "Why did you break in to the mansion?"

They hesitate for a moment, Tifa giving Cloud a pointed look. "Got sick of waiting outside," Cloud answered. "It was cold." It's actually still cold inside the mansion. Not as windy, maybe, but still freezing.

"And that's all?" the man asks calmly.

"Yeah, basically," Cloud shrugs and tucks his hands into his pockets. Are all ShinRa job interviews this weird?

"Hmm," the man answers and turns to Tifa. "And you, young lady?"

Tifa shrugs, looking uneasy and annoyed. "Well, yeah," she says and scowls at him. "What is this? What do you want from us, what kind of job interview is this?"

The man eyes them silently for a moment and then nods. "Alright," he says and stands up. "You are Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart, correct?" he asks, taking out his PHS again and making the screen glow. "From this year's graduating class."

"How do you know that?" Tifa asks suspiciously.

The man doesn't answer. "Son of the local mechanic and daughter of the mayor. Tell me Miss Lockhart, what sort of skills do you have?"

"I am skilled at kicking people's ass," Tifa promises with narrowed eyes.

"As the student of the famous Zangan, I have no doubt of that," the man says and steps closer, into the dim light screening through the open window. It turns out he's wearing a suit with black dress shirt and black tie and everything. He's still pale in the dim light, but not quite as deathly pale as before. If anything, he's more tanned than Tifa and Cloud combine, having Wutaian complexion.

"But you are applying for a position as household staff in an old, rundown mansion," the man points out, still looking at Tifa. "Which includes cleaning, cooking, maintenance and various other _dirty_ tasks. So what sort of skills can you bring to the table, Miss Lockhart, daughter of the Mayor?"

Tifa scowls at him. "I can get my hands dirty the same as anyone. I can clean, I can wash – and I am a good cook," she says. "Why aren't you asking Cloud?"

"He's the son of a mechanic in a small country town," the man says. "And he has dirt under his fingernails and oil in the back of his head – probably from lying on oily garage floor, while maintaining vehicles. You, on other hand, are prim and spotless."

Tifa glares murder at the guy. "So I know how to keep my clothes clean and have regular baths like normal person. That should just be a point in my favour, not against me."

Cloud smothers his laugh in a cough.

The man arches an eyebrow at her and puts his PHS away. "Hm. Cooking you say?"

"Yes," Tifa mutters.

"We'll see," the man says and turns around. "Come this way."

* * *

 

The guy makes them clean the kitchen.

It is beyond weird. For one, there is no electricity and the place is still complete dark, getting darker with each second as evening starts giving away into night outside, taking away what little light there is. And the Wutaian is still looming about in the shadows like particularly well dressed ghost, just watching them, not saying anything, not giving away anything, just watching.

Cloud and Tifa share an uneasy look and then Cloud shrugs and they get to work. Thankfully water is still running, and Tifa finds some ancient looking cleaning supplies and starts scrubbing the sink clean of the muck that's been sitting there god-only-knows-how-long, while Cloud starts scrubbing the stove from similar muck. They wipe the tables and other surfaces and while Cloud looks into the fridge to see if it still works, Tifa scrubs the oven clean.

It takes them about an hour and short search through the increasingly dark mansion for a bucket and a mop, but bit by bit they clean the kitchen up as well as they can. The fridge might or might not work, the freezer is a complete loss – whatever was left in it has actually rotten though the inside lining. The tabletop surfaces are so and so – some of the wood is rotten, but they get it mostly clean. Really, the best preserved thing in the whole damn place is the sink, and that's because it's made stainless steel or something.

Eventually, there is nothing more to clean. The place is still disgusting, but there's little they can do to the mould growing behind the stove and though Cloud scraped up the stuff growing under the window the floorboard there are completely rotten. The place is a health hazard – but it's one they've now scrubbed clean to the best of their ability.

Once done, Cloud and Tifa stand around uncertainly, watching the Wutaian man watch them. The man considers the sink, the stove, the fridge, the tables, the floor. He doesn't look impressed.

"Alright," he says and gets out his PHS. "You're hired."

"What," Cloud says flatly.

"You're hired," the man says calmly and then takes something out – a plastic card. He swipes it over his PHS and then holds it out. It's a credit card. "These are some funds to be used in the mansion's repairs. You have three months to make this place clean and liveable. You may hire people to do repair works but know that all of the card's purchases will be monitored, so I do not recommend stealing them. You'll be paid what remains of the funds and additional back pay for the whole three months if the resident deems the mansion suitable, in three months time."

"What," Tifa says just as flatly as Cloud had, even as she accepts the cards.

The man looks between them. "A valuable member of ShinRa Corporation will be retiring here in three months time," he says. "You are going to be his household staff and you are going to make this place suitable for him. Do well, and I'm sure you will find fulltime employment here for years to come."

He doesn't say what might happen if they do poorly.

"Right," Tifa says slowly and looks at the card. "How much is on this?" she then asks, now with new determination in her eyes. "We need to know our budget so we don't over extend."

The man tells them.

It's at that point Cloud figures out that they're probably fucked.


	2. Chapter 2

The day following their very special interview at the ShinRa mansion, Skye Strife busts out her most disappointing face and the way Mayor Lockhart shouts at his daughter could be heard pretty much in every corner of the town – so, chances at Tifa got her new work ID and employment forms mailed to her the same as Cloud, which made their new fate pretty hard to hide.

"What were you thinking?!"

"Oh come on, what was I supposed to do?" Cloud asks.

"How about... not applying to the obviously dangerous and stupid job advertisement posted by the evil corporation that got you dad killed?" Skye asks, looking at him like she's already lost him. "You know what happened to him, I've told you time and time again."

"Dad died because of mako exposure," Cloud reminds her. "And I'm not going to work at the plant – I'm going to work at the mansion."

"So you'll die of exposure to who knows what other chemicals. Cloud, there are labs in that place – the mayor saw them."

"It's a house! The worst there is, is some mould and weird moss gunk that's growing everywhere."

"Mould exposure then!" Skye says and throws up her hands. "Cloud, honey... just what were you thinking?"

Cloud was thinking of the thirty-somethings of the town, still living with their parents with nothing to do with their lives and no prospect of anything better than living with their parents until they died. And sure, that was the way it just went in Nibelheim... but it wasn't the way he wanted to spend his life.

"I don't want to be a mechanic," Cloud says simply. "And I don't want to stay here for the rest of my stupid life. I want to save up and _leave_."

"Oh, everyone says that," his mother sighs, waving a dismissive hand. "No one ever does – except to maybe work with ShinRa at Corel or Rocket Town. You know that."

That stings a bit, because it's true. Cloud makes a face and looks at his feet for a moment and then he shrugs, stubborn. "Well, it doesn't matter now. I'm working for ShinRa Mansion," he says and waves the forms, fully signed and legally binding. "And there's gonna be consequences if I don't show up. So there."

Skye sighs heavily, and runs a hand over her face. She looks tired all of sudden, older than he's never seen her before – and when she finally looks at him again, it makes him feel both taller and smaller than he's ever felt before. "Alright," she says, and looks at him like she isn't sure she knows him. "You're right."

It doesn't make Cloud feel exactly good about the whole thing, though, to hear her defeated tone of voice.

Skye sighs and shakes her head and holds out her hand. "Now let me have a look at that contract."

She reads through the forms, frowning a little, and then looks at the ID Cloud now has, his employer identification card. "Cloud," she then says slowly. "These aren't ShinRa forms."

"What?" Cloud asks, surprised.

"These aren't ShinRa forms – trust me, I know what those looks like. And –" Skye stops, pointing at the end. "Huh. I don't... you said there was a man at the mansion, who gave you your interview exam. What did he say, exactly?"

"That me and Tifa, we were gonna be the house hold staff for some important big shot at ShinRa who's retiring to the mansion," Cloud shrugs. "And we have three months to clean the place up for them."

"Hmm..." Skye says, running a hand over her chin. "Well... good news is, you don't seem to be ShinRa employee."

"What? Lemme see that," Cloud says and takes the form. It's all legalese with small walls of tiny text everywhere – but she's right. ShinRa Electric Power Company isn't mentioned anywhere – and his job title is a _domestic household staff_. The forms are signed by a lopsided scribble that Cloud can't even begin to read. It looks like the first letter might be a loopy G. or maybe an S?

"It is a little strange for ShinRa to not bring in their own staff," Skye says, considering him. "Important Big shot, huh?"

Cloud shrugs, looking the form over. Then he looks at the ID card he'd been send. It has his name, age, birth day, everything, and it looks a lot like the ShinRa ID cards he's seen...

Except it's missing the ShinRa logo.

"Well," Cloud says and frowns. "Maybe it's like... I dunno. Legal issue. Can't have actual ShinRa employees working there, or something, for... some reason."

"I don't know..." Skye muses and frowns, thinking about it. "These came awfully quick too. You had your interview yesterday and now you already have forms and ID cards."

"And we got keys to the mansion. And _bank cards_  too," Cloud snorts and takes the thing out. That, at least, is ShinRa through and through – but then, ShinRa runs the only really reliable bank on the Planet, so that's not a problem.

"A... bank card," Skye repeats.

"Yeah. Funds for restoring the Mansion," Cloud says, flipping the card over. "Tifa got one too. We got three months to clean the place up for the future resident, so..."

She looks at him with a frown and then says, very worried. "Cloud... in how bad a state is that place?"

* * *

 

Cloud isn't the only one who takes his parent to see the mansion – Tifa is already there with the Mayor when Cloud and Skye enter, and he looks about as disappointed and pissed off as Skye does.

"Boy," he greets Cloud with a glare. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"I'm doing well, thanks," Cloud answers dryly. "Nice morning isn't it? Very brisk."

"Don't you go pointing fingers at my son," Skye says sharply, and points a finger at the Mayor. "It's your daughter always urging him on to do stupid things and I bet this is all her smart idea. Just like at the bridge -"

"That incident was your son's doing, taking advantage of my daughter's time of grief -"

"- and now I just bet this was the same, her talking big game and painting it up as an adventure and -"

Tifa and Cloud share a look and shrug their shoulders. "You got one too, huh?" Cloud then asks, nodding at the ID card, hanging from the front of her best by a clip.

"Yep, and I am wearing it like a badge until dad shuts up," she agrees.

It's not a bad idea, and while Skye and the Mayor shout parental accusations each other, Cloud gets his ID out and pins it to the front of his jacket, letting it hang from the edge of his chest pocket. It feels a bit weird to have the thing out like that.

"... and one of these days it is going to get both of them killed," the Mayor snaps. "And when that day comes, oh, when that day comes, I will be the first to tell you _I told you so_!"

"How about," Tifa says, loud enough to cut into the well rehearsed end of the years old fight. "We actually look around a bit, since you wanted to see this place – and me and Cloud, we have work to do. As employees of the place. You know. Because we're employed here now."

Skye glares at her, and the Mayor gives her a look of desperate loss.

"Yeah, come on," Cloud says and then, just to keep them from getting into another argument, sets out to explore. "Let's have a poke around."

So, they poke in at the mansion for a bit. It's even bigger than it looks on the outside, it turns out. Of course the mansion has always been a bit imposing and impressive, but when all the space inside is separated into impressive halls and private rooms, into a big kitchen and adjoined dining room and luxurious bath room and couple separate private lounges... it really drives in that the place is a _mansion_. It's bigger than the Mayor's house, the Inn and the school, combined.

"I didn't think this place would be so run down already," the Mayor says finally, looking worried. "It's been empty for less than fifteen years, hasn't it?"

"Sixteen," Skye answers, arms folded and giving a disapproving look at a patch of grey and green and white that's crawling up the wall next to a window. "Sixteen years with no maintenance in Nibelheim weather... it does things to old houses."

"You don't say," the Mayor says, sarcastically and then turns to Tifa. "Darling, I'm sure that if we just called ShinRa we could still call this whole thing off."

"Nope," Tifa says.

"You don't call things off with ShinRa," Skye says wryly and looks at Cloud. "How much money were you given?"

"Money?" the Mayor asks and turns to Cloud. "Why were you given money? What's this?"

Cloud arches an eyebrow at Tifa, who makes a face at him. "We were given debit cards," Cloud says and shrugs. "For repairing and restoring the mansion, and stuff."

"Tifa?" The Mayor says, turning to her and sounding a little betrayed.

"Yeaah," Tifa says, glaring at Cloud and then shrugging her shoulders. "It was... it's a lot of money."

"How much is a lot?" Skye asks and points at the patch of mould. "Because that whole wall needs to go, and it's the eighth patch of mould I've seen so far, and that's ignoring the water damage in the bathroom, and the utterly rotten floorboards in the kitchen. You're going to need to tear down walls and replace floor boards and we have no idea about the state of the roof -"

"Fifty thousand gil," Cloud says. "It was fifty thousand gil."

"Each," Tifa agrees.

The Mayor makes a sound of objection at that, sputtering, "Who would give money like that to _children_?!" in horror. Skye on other hand is scowling at the bit of mouldy wall.

"Hundred thousand gil. Well," she says, thoughtful. "With bit of budgeting... it might be enough."

"Wait, what do you mean  _enough_?" Cloud asks incredulously. "It's _fifty thousand gil_!" His head is still spinning a bit at the number – he'd barely gotten any sleep last night at all, just thinking about it. Fifty thousand gil, that's more money than any one person in Nibelheim had or would ever see in their entire live times!

"And repairing a place this big, with this much damage, can easily eat up half a million, if not more," Skye says and rests her hands on her hips. "Hiring construction, having material delivered – probably from Rocket Town – then the work itself..."

Cloud and Tifa gape at her.

"She's right," the Mayor says after a moment of thinking. "It's a lot of damage – and building this place cost around ten million, if I recall it right. Hundred thousand gil isn't actually that much, considering the size of this house, and the damage..."

Holy shit, Cloud thinks.

Skye shakes her head and looks at him and Tifa. Then she turns to the Mayor. "Right," she says. "I'll do damage assessment pro-bono and sketch up an initial plan for the repairs, if you handle the construction materials and hiring. We'll get a good builder from Rocket Town, or Corel to run the whole show and some of the local boys to do the work, and the money should be enough."

"Hmm," the Mayor considers and then looks at Tifa and Cloud. "No."

"What do you mean, _no_?" Skye demands sharply while Tifa and Cloud share a confused look.

"The kids got themselves into this," the Mayor says and folds his arms. "They signed contracts, were given budget, a project and a dead line – and they're damn well going to sort it out themselves."

"But, dad," Tifa says imploringly, even as much to Cloud's horror Skye gets a thoughtful look on her face.

"You signed a contract, Tifa, without actually considering what signing it entailed," the Mayor says mercilessly. "Did you even _read_  the thing?"

She swallows guiltily, and Cloud looks away awkwardly. She hadn't – neither of them had.

"Didn't think so," the Mayor snorts and shakes his head. He looks between them, from Tifa to Cloud, from Cloud to Tifa. "You two made your bed. Time to lie on it."

Skye hums in agreement and nods wryly at Cloud.  "How are you feeling about getting employed now?"

* * *

So it turns out that Tifa's dad is bit of an asshole and Cloud's mom is as vindictive as they came. None of that is news though, even if it still stings.

"They think we'll give up," Tifa says, as they wander around the mouldy mansion, alone and now with no judgemental, sanctimonious parents around to give them knowing looks. "That we'll crash and burn and learn valuable lesson."

Cloud considers the mansion around them – now scary on whole new level. He thinks of all the mould and rot and unspeakable gunk, the stuff in the bathroom, the potentially burst pipes and probably leaking roof. Thinks of the total of hundred thousand gil, previously a fortune beyond imaging, which now seems such a small sum. Of hiring people and buying materials and doing the work. Three months to turn this mess of a place into liveable estate. And neither of them knows that much about house repair.

Their happy chance of employment and eventual escape has turned into an impossible challenge. Any reasonable person would give up right there and then.

"Yeah," Cloud agrees almost sadly. "It's like they don't know us at all."

Tifa throws him a ferocious looking grin and then pulls her sleeves up. "Right. So they let slip lot of useful stuff – or your mum did, anyway. So, let's start with damage assessment. Let's find pen and paper and write it all down."

"Bet I can find the most problems," Cloud says, pushing his hood back.

"The one that finds most wins – anything we both catch isn't counted," Tifa says, her eyes lighting up. "Loser has to deal with the bathroom."

"You're on."

The next two hours are spend poking and prodding every room, turning over furniture and testing every wall and floor and occasionally climbing up to knock on the ceiling too, just in case. They end up throwing all the carpets out – they're in the way of their investigation, and unsalvageable at any rate – and any piece of furniture that looks even a bit lopsided is thrown out of the nearest window.

Together, constantly trying to elbow each other out of the way, they brave the attic and discover it's leaking in three places, and then they do the same with the basement, racing down the spiral staircase so fast they both almost end up falling to their deaths.

"Oh wow," Tifa says when they discover the labs.

"Yeah," Cloud agrees, looking up and down and knocking on the walls.

"It's," Tifa starts to say and then rests hands on her waist, looking a little confused. "It's all pretty clean, actually. Huh."

It is too. There is no water damage, no mould, nothing – the place is in perfect repair. There is delicate looking lab equipment everywhere and boxes full of folders of important looking documents and shelves and shelves of books – and all of it is perfectly preserved.

"I guess how cold it is here protected this place," Cloud muses. "It's like a freezer, too chilly for mould. And there's not much wood down here to rot."

"Mmm," Tifa says. "It's not so damp here either. This place must have pretty good ventilation."

They eye the place for a while with mix of suspicion and unease – after all the disrepair of the mansion above, the basement is a bit creepy with how nice and clean it is. It is still old, there is no question about it, and there are rat droppings everywhere… but it looks like it's been empty for few weeks maybe, not few years.

"Ugh," Tifa says with a shudder.

"Well, it's one place less to fix," Cloud says determinately, choosing very firmly to not think about it for now. Instead he takes out his list of problems. "Okay, time to tally up."

They go over their lists right there, in the weird, vaguely creepy basement study, with old bookshelves leaning over them. Mostly they have the exact same things on their lists, but there are differences. Cloud noticed more water leaks from where the pipe works had been damaged while Tifa had noticed stuff like rotten window sills and cracked window panes, small details that seemed insignificant compared to, say, the pit of mould in one of the bedrooms… but which would still have to be fixed.

"Damn," Cloud says once they're done counting – Tifa beats his list with two items, a broken door with hinges that had rusted right off the frame, and ceiling corner of one of the bedrooms where the water damage from the attic had seeped though the boards.

"Yeah, _eat_ it," Tifa cheers and points a finger at him. "You're doing bathroom and that's that."

"Well, then you can do kitchen," Cloud says, even while making faces at their lists. "Because I won't have the time, apparently."

"Eh, I was gonna anyway," Tifa shrugs, like it had all gone according to plan.

Then they actually consider the lists – and what it means that with every fault tallied up, there are about 60 big and small problems in ShinRa Mansion they need fixed.

"We need a professional," Cloud says. "An actual repairman who does stuff like this. Even Ma doesn't do stuff like this. And I'm not sure if we can even hire her at this point, since she and your dad are being all high and mighty about us being adults that need no parental guidance or whatever."

"Yeah, but she's best we got around here," Tifa says, chewing her lip. "There are no repairmen or construction workers in Nibelheim."

"Then we'll have to hire someone from out of town," Cloud says. "I think Ma mentioned Rocket Town? And I bet your dad has, like, a directory for every business in the continent or something. If he does, do you think he'd let you use it?"

"Maybe I'm not going to ask for permission," Tifa says and folds her arms, eying the list. "I guess that's our first order of business. Finding a proper repairman. And airing this place out. And throwing all the useless stuff away."

"There's already a pile of furniture corpses outside, we need to something with those," Cloud says, thinking about all the chairs and desks and rotten mattresses they'd hauled out of windows.

"Hmm," Tifa says and then looks at him. "There was a big fireplace in the hall. Do you think it still works?"

"Well… if it doesn't, we can always have a bonfire," Cloud muses, catching on her thinking fast. "You know what, let's clear the place up, empty out all the rooms. I mean, we're going to have to anyway and chances are none of the furniture here is good anymore and besides… we have the money to get all new stuff. And probably should."

"How about you do that and I'll get us a repairman," Tifa suggests.

Cloud gives her a look. "So you can sit cushy inside a house that's _not_ rotting just making phone calls while I do all the physical labour?" he asks.

"Okay," She says and gives him a look. "Sure, okay, I'll do the physical labour and _you_ can make the phone calls. And I mean actual phone calls. You know, where you have to talk to people. On the phone. About professional stuff. It's probably going to be lot of people. And it might even involve _haggling_."

Cloud imagines it vividly for a moment. He shudders. "Okay, hauling out the furniture it is," he mutters while Tifa smiles a sweet, self satisfied smile at him. "But," Cloud adds. "If I find something interesting that we're going to throw out, it's _mine_."

"Sure, you can have all the treasures you can find in this…" she casts a look around the basement. "…fine place. And good luck finding any."

* * *

Cloud starts with the smaller stuff. Carpets, curtains, chairs, closets full of rotten clothing and linen, poking at all the chests and boxes and drawers as he does for anything interesting. And he does find some interesting stuff. Like a silver megaphone. A weird throwing star… thing that looks like something from Wutai. A big ass machine gun… thing.

"This place is weird," Cloud mutters, even while hauling the machine gun thing into the main hall way and into the corner where he's piled up all the more interesting and valuable things he's found. Like bunch of numbers someone had written all over the place.

He takes the beds apart and hauls them out of the windows piece by piece. The couches are harder to move, though, and in the end Cloud goes out looking for an axe or some other tool to just take the damn things apart.

There aren't that many tools around the mansion, though. The best he finds is the shovel he and Tifa had used to break into the mansion – there isn't even a crowbar anywhere, which when he thinks about it is something they probably would need before long. The shovel isn't particularly useful for chopping things up, though – it's dull and brittle with rust and the first whack he makes at the thing breaks off a chunk of brownish metal.

"Hmm," Cloud hums, considering the couches and then the shovel. Then he thinks, the basement.

There were all sorts of useful tools in the basement. Maybe not an axe – but he can very easily imagine finding a bone saw down there. And if it worked on bone, then wood and rotten fabric should be no challenge.

Cloud hesitates for a while. Going down to the basement was no big deal when Tifa was there – they'd done lot of things together and the basement didn't even touch the top five worst places they'd dared each other into. But… that was different. Going down there alone was… different.

Then Cloud imagines the face she'd give him, the arched eyebrow, the amusement, the "Aww how cute" tone of voice she'd get if she'd ever realise he'd for a _moment_ felt scared to go somewhere just because she wasn't there.

Well screw that.

The basement is so weird though, he thinks, even as he goes up to the second floor to get at the stairs. For one, the staircase – the weird _spiral_ staircase – leading down to the basement was in the second floor. Who put entrance to the basement on the second floor, why? And it's inside big stone… cylinder thing, which kind of looks like a well, except it goes up to the second floor, and it's huge, and there is no well.

And then there is the basement itself. The clean, mould free basement which by all rights should be the most damp, cold, miserable place in the whole mansion – but isn't.

Cloud shudders a little as he pokes around, looking for tools. It had been so easy not to think about it before, when Tifa was there, but now…

Rats skitter in the shadows, and numerous phials and test tubes and containers of faintly shimmering green liquids gleam in the darkness and for a moment Cloud thinks of all the ghost stories that people told about this exact place, the Basement under ShinRa Mansion, the place where ShinRa did terrible human experiments, and hid bodies.

Of course, they're just stories. Not a bit of truth to them. None at all.

It gets harder to convince himself of that the longer Cloud stays down there, though.

Finding a room full of coffins certainly doesn't help.

"This place," Cloud says out loud very determinately and very defiantly at the face of all the creepy things trying to crawl into his head, "is so freaking _weird_." Not scary, oh no, not scary at all, not one bit – just _weird_.

Then one of the coffins makes a _sound_ and then it's actually scary as fuck.


End file.
